Introductions and first assignments.

I am a Johnnie. Now to those of you who have not heard of St. Johns College that may not mean much but to those who have this blog will not need explanation. I will leave you my dear readers to figure out what exactly St. John's is, it is enough to say that it has left me with a love of learning even if various things made it impossible for me to finish my stint there.  Now years later I am preparing to return to college and my mind is begging for engagement so I am starting my own version of the St. John's curriculum on my own holding discussions with friends and my hope is readers.

The first reading I am doing is The Iliad by Homer books 1-5 (http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwcanoniccom-20&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=iliad&sourceid=Mozilla-search). I will make a point of not pushing translations with a few exceptions but I will link my readers to the amazon list of the work so they can pick a translator and get the isbn number of the translation they choose and go about getting it however they want. All of these works should be available at you local library.

I will also be working on a novel called Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sophies+world+jostein+gaarder&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asophies+world+jostein+gaarder&ajr=3) though that will be with a less structured time table and regularity. This is a book my father read to me when I was young and he and i are reading it again and discussing it. It is the story of a girl discovering philosophy, and a mystery.

I will also be personally working on How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren (http://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Touchstone-book/dp/0671212095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297270146&sr=8-1) and in order to look at how best to examine the works I will be reading.


Anyways it is my hope that many of you will join me on this path of learning and discovery and in the end each make your own decision did the Greats really matter.  It is my hope that everyone can learn something even if they don't follow the readings though you will gain far more if you do read along and participate.





(much thanks for the title owed to Thomas Cahill author of Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Did the Greeks Matter? and my grandparents who gave me the book which will be on the reading list later.)